are set to be reduced.

But senior citizens will get a break after Finance Minister Eugene Cox announced their exemption from the tariff will be raised by $10,000 from $30,000 to $40,000.

A more wide-reaching change is a rise in the payable percentage in domestic land tax rates from 40 percent to 60 percent.

This will mean increases in revenue which are, according to Finance Minister Eugene Cox, "significantly tempered through a combination of broadening tax bands and a further lowering of taxes rates''.

In his speech in the House of Assembly yesterday, Mr. Cox said these adjustments meant an estimated $3.7 million would be raised during the full tax year commencing in July.

Controversy erupted last summer when Government announced a raising of the Annual Rental Value on properties, but a lowering of the rate of tax.

That meant that while 75 percent of residents would see lower charges, owners of luxury homes and the business sector would pay more.

In a press conference yesterday, Mr. Cox explained the changes relating to senior citizens were introduced "because we found some people in that sector were hurting under the old system''.

Retired businessman Sir John Plowman called the exemption increase a "welcome relief'' for older people.

But the outspoken chairman of last year's International Year of the Older Person also noted that land taxes were proving to be a "serious problem'' for many of the Island's seniors.

"The whole thing needs to be looked at carefully, because it has people paying higher rates who have nice homes but don't necessarily have the means to do so,'' Sir John said.

He called for a specially commissioned Census to find out the incomes of Bermuda's older residents so that certain people without the means could be exempted.

Homeowner Nicholas Comber yesterday said he had expected the increase in the percentage payable, saying it was "quite a subtle way of doing things''.

"They're discounting it, so most people are paying pretty much the same as they've always been and then implementing this plan of gradually stepping it up over the next few years -- it's quite crafty,'' he said.

Mr. Comber, whose grandmother will be one of many older people to benefit from the increase in exemption, added: "It's definitely a break for her.''